I've been visiting this forum regularly for a few years now, especially enjoying photos from other collectors but without posting anything yet, so I thought it's high time to start sharing some of my own collection with you.

Like so many others I've been collecting 'rocks' for as long as I can remember, despite living in the Netherlands, a country that is virtually devoid of any collectable minerals. I'm 27 now, and for the last four years it has gradually started to become a far more serious hobby for me. Quite early on I started focusing my collection on pyrite when I noticed how many different crystal habits and localities I already had in my collection of that mineral. I soon had quite a number of aesthetic pyrites from Romania, so I decided to expand my focus to include other Romanian minerals as well. Via this route, more and more baryte specimens started to find their way into my collection, and thus my obsession for baryte began. For the last two years or so, this has become the sole focus of my collection.

I'm simply fascinated by the endless variety in crystal habit, colour, size, transparency, localities, history and associated minerals of this single mineral species. For me, baryte shows just about everything that makes minerals so incredibly attractive for us collectors. I try to collect pieces that add yet another touch of variety to the collection as a whole: another locality, a new variation within that locality, a new crystal habit, another colour of fluorescence, etc. At this moment, the collection has reached about 350 baryte specimens, although it seems that my wish list always keeps growing faster than the collection itself. ;)

On top of that, I love combining my passion for minerals with my other hobbies: I'm perfectly content when I can spend the entire evening photographing minerals whilst enjoying some jazz or salsa music in the background and a glass of good beer or rum within reach. I certainly hope you'll enjoy browsing through my collection in this 'digital display case'!

Relatively large tabular baryte with smaller subparallel crystals. The orange/brown colour is due to inclusions of limonite. The mine had originally started in the 18th century as a tin and cobalt mine, but was prospected for baryte in the 1950s; the specimen is from this prospecting period.

Dark amber coloured glossy prismatic intergrown crystals of baryte. Found in the '60s in the OWO Spat vein. The backside shows an interesting open structure from which other minerals have been etched away.

Hi Niels and a warm welcome from your baryte-rich eastern neighboring country :-)
I really enjoy your thread (though baryte is not a focus of my collection), your introduction about your collection history was very interesting and your specimens and your photo quality are really fine!

Hi Niels and a warm welcome from your baryte-rich eastern neighboring country :-)
I really enjoy your thread (though baryte is not a focus of my collection), your introduction about your collection history was very interesting and your specimens and your photo quality are really fine!

Please more, kind regards from Germany
Tobi

Danke schön Tobi, es freut mich dass es dir gefällt!

And to be honest, I'm quite jealous of the wealth of mining history and gorgeous minerals that you guys in Germany have on your doorstep. ;)

Philippe Durand wrote:

you are welcome Niels.
I like this type of thematic collection.

Keep posting more; it is a pleasure

Well so do I, it usually makes a collection more coherent and interesting when there's a theme behind it - whether it's a species, a specific locality or region, etc.

Many thanks for the correction, Jordi, I think you're spot on. I have been searching more information on Tercera Esperanza, but I was already a little surprised when I couldn't find anything similar at all. Mina Haití makes a lot more sense, so if you could correct it for me that would be great.
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This time I'd like to share some of the classics in my collection with old labels. I just love that connection with the history of mineralogy that these labels give us. My own collection cards are inspired by these old labels, although I wished I had such graceful handwriting myself as well.

269-Bariet-Pribram-Bohemen-Tsjechie.jpeg

Mineral:

Baryte

Locality:

Příbram, Central Bohemia Region, Bohemia, Czech Republic

Dimensions:

4,0 x 2,6 x 2,2 cm

Description:

Small piece of white to light grey baryte, along with an old Krantz label from the 1890s or early 1900s, as well as another old label and the original green cardboard box. The Krantz label uses the old German term for baryte, 'schwerspath', and labels it as 'einfach Kryst.' (simple crystals/crystallization in English).

Viewed:

3790 Time(s)

890-Bariet-Stribro-Mies-Plzen-Bohemen-Tsjechie-medium.jpeg

Locality:

Stříbro (Mies), Plzeň Region, Bohemia, Czech Republic

Dimensions:

5,5 x 2,9 x 1,0 cm

Description:

Single baryte crystal with multiple tapering terminations with flat ends. Mostly transparent with some brown inclusions and in some places a slight blueish colour.

Two parallel transparent tabular baryte crystals, with a subtle texture across some of the crystal faces, as well as some zoning visible on the right hand side. It originally comes from the collection of the University of Aachen, Germany, from around the turn of the 19th century. It is accompanied by the original label and cardboard box, 'Schwerspath' being the old German name for baryte, similar to 'heavy spar' in English.

Old specimen of polished baryte known as 'oakstone' because of its resemblance to wood texture and colour. Back in the day, these were polished using leather belts. The accompanying label only states it is from Derbyshire, but it is typical for Arbor Low.

Nice pieces! Regarding your Müschede specimen: I'm definitely not familiar with that region, but it was told to me by several local collectors that these specimens all came from the Ruhr-Lippe-quarry not the Lanwehr quarry.

You're completely right, Andreas. I've only recently found out that any attributions to the Lanwehr quarry are incorrect, even though I've seen a fair number labeled as such independently from one another at shows and online. It was already on my to do list to notify the admin team over on Mindat about this, so thanks for reminding me!
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Group of relatively large baryte crystals with very distinct zoning, ranging from a transparent blue core to a more cream white rougher outer layer. It was a fun challenge to get the lighting in the photo just right to show the contrast between the transparent and more opaque layers.

Intergrown brown to grey baryte, hosting a second generation of long thin tabular baryte with a more transparent milky colour. In several places, small sprays of hemimorphite have grown across the surface of the baryte.

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